J's Pages

Make sure you catch Errol Morris’ fascinating documentary about a former beauty queen charged with abducting, imprisoning and raping a young Mormon missionary in the 1970s. Nearly 40 years after Joyce McKinney made tabloid headlines in the U.K., she still says the young Mormon was the love of her life.

ED’S NOTE: This post reflects my interest in advertising as a marketing student. It does not endorse any product, services, organizations, campaigns or agency. The opinions expressed here are mine and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers.

The Demi and Ashton Foundation’s new “Real Men” interactive campaign begins this week, using A-listers such as Justin Timberlake to educate the public about the child sex trade in the USA.

Certainly it’s a cause more worthy than, say, aiding a Kardashian or a Real Housewife — the foundation’s efforts to raise awareness aren’t without merit. But doesn’t there seem to be a huge disconnect here between the very serious subject of child sex slavery and the flippant tone of the ad’s script?

ED’S NOTE: This post reflects my interest in advertising as a marketing student. It does not endorse any product, services or agency. The opinions expressed here are mine and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers.

Kenny Powers is back hawking K-Swiss Tubes during the sweat-soaked, beer-stained, testosterone-fueled insanity that is March Madness.

Yes, this news is about as fresh as a towel on a locker room floor  – I have to admit that I had forgotten about our loveable anti-hero and his side job for K-Swiss (NASDAQ: KSWS). Even so, I want to quickly examine  the most recent leg of the campaign I wrote about last summer. “Tournageddon“ is a balls-to-the-wall social-media push that starts on Facebook and ends up on Yahoo Fantasy Sports.

Fans can submit their picks, pore over team analyses, get recaps filled with Kenny’s insights and — ultimately — they can spend more times him and his Tubes. And when fans are done killing time mourning their busted brackets, they can download the Muscle Machine app from iTunes or let Kenny manage their Facebook page with the Workout Wingman app. The idea behind the Wingman app is you’ll be “training in K-SWISS Tubes like a true frickin’ champion” instead of Facebooking (fat chance) and Kenny will answer your friends’ posts (“You’re f-in’ OUT, MOM!”).

Since I last wrote about Kenny Powers and Tubes, the Tubes site has been overhauled with a very masculine red and black theme. Very fiery. Powerful. Like Hell. Makes me want to go buy some Axe body wash or something. Lame jokes aside, it’s a very comprehensive e-commerce portal: Shoppers can customize a pair of Tubes, watch the very funny advertising spots featuring Patrick Willis and Jeremy Shockey, connect with Kenny on Facebook and Yahoo, and even order season one of Eastbound & Down, the critically acclaimed six episodes that introduced us to a foul-mouthed has-been ballplayer that somehow stole our hearts.

I think what I appreciate most about the Tubes campaign is how all the copy maintains Kenny’s voice, such as it is outside of the HBO series, while promoting the athletic shoes. It’s unlikely actor/Kenny creator Danny McBride was available to whip up copy for 72andSunny, the agency behind the Tubes campaign, so props to the writers for keeping Kenny real and an appropriate PG-13. He’s still a crass buffoon, even when he’s not dropping the f-bomb after every third utterance.

Finally, here’s Kenny in the spot “Gravity,” featuring New Orleans tight end Jeremy Shockey. I had planned to post this a long time ago, but I couldn’t find it and then I eventually lost interest. Perhaps the lackluster second season of Eastbound & Down played a role in my forgetfulness.

This cool foursquare graphic looks at 2010′s opening-weekend movie check-ins, breaking down the data by title, gender preferences and overlap, and regional interest. Of note: Mississippians dug Gulliver’s Travels and Toy Story 3, while Utahns preferred Edge of Darkness and Tooth Fairy.

Among my opening-weekend check-ins: The Town and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.  I slept like a baby during both. Not among my opening-weekend check-ins: Sex and the City: 2. I write this proudly.

In other foursquare news, the location-based social network is now distinguishing between friends and followers. This will allow marketers to determine the users with a large reach. The HubSpot blog has details in their Feb. 28 post that I missed because I was researching strategies for Angry Birds or doing something equally important.

I also missed foursquare’s “Rudest Cities in the World” list posted Feb. 28 on the network’s engineering blog. While it is interesting to know that Manchester, England, has the most … colorful … check-ins in the world, the post more importantly details how the company will mine (explore) the data it collects to make decisions about venues, promotion and demographics. The post is heavy on the tech, but offers some insight into foursquare’s ambitions.

For those more interested in the rude cities themselves, AOL Travel has a roundup.



Behold! Charlie Sheen Magnetic Poetry Kit! Tigerblood edition! Just in time for … Spring Break? Easter?

(Via Drink At Work.)

I have a new obsession: Pinterest.com, a website that lets you create “pinboards” of interesting things you find on the Web, and it lets you follow people whose pinboards you find interesting. It’s a little like Tumblr, but more sophisticated.

The site is still in beta, but you can request an invite. It’s ideal for photographers and other highly visual people. Using their “pin it” tool, you can build pinboards that share books worth reading, places you want to go, places you’ve been, products you love, and all the styles you’d ever covet. And, of course, you can share your pins on Twitter and Facebook.

One word of caution: Once you start pinning things, you’ll find it’s hard to stop.

It pisses me off that this spot for Bing rewrites the end of Thelma and Louise (1991). Why not rewrite The Godfather?  To Kill A Mockingbird? Apocalypse Now? How about It’s A Wonderful Life?

UPDATE: I feel better now. I just found the Bing ad that rewrites Easy Rider (1969). Not great, just better.

I hope they don’t try to mess with Silence of the Lambs (1991).

Agency: Advertising behemoth JWT.

TBD, a website covering news and culture here in the metro area that is Disneyland on the Potomac, has officially gone live.

The letter from the editor (who would be one Erik Wemple) promises “an aggressive news-filtering machine” that lets D.C. metro residents access an area news feed just by entering their zip code. Wemple also admits all the kinks aren’t worked out just yet and asks the readers to bear with them as they grow.

I was sorta psyched for them until I read they have three reporters devoted to the Redskins year round.

Oh well. Good luck to them, anyway.